eBay joining the crypto bandwagon?
eBay Chief Executive hints at digital collectibles and crypto payments on platform
With emerging assets gaining more attention, eBay is exploring the possibility to start accepting crypto payments to its platform. The platform currently has 187 million active buyers .
eBay Chief Executive Jamie Iannone, in an interview to CNBC said that the company is always looking to add new payment methods on its platform to offer to its users and is also looking into ways to enable NFTs on eBay. With collectables being a “core category on eBay” the e-commerce giant is exploring ways to expand its marketplace to offer non-fungible tokens on its platform.
When asked about NFT’s Iannone stated that the process of selling NFTs is already enabled in a way with physical components on eBay and the company is aiming to make the process simpler.? “We’re looking at it and exploring opportunities for how we can enable it on eBay in an easy way. If you think about collectibles, everything that’s collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades.”
An eBay spokeswoman said in an emailed statement to coindesk said “We are currently looking at a number of ways to innovate in this space and we are excited about the underlying capabilities and how blockchain-driven collectibles bring trust and authenticity, key components of a marketplace, to the digital space.”
For payment methods, the company used to own Paypal and has recently been expanding the types of payments they accept. eBay now takes Apple Pay and Google Pay expanding the choices for buyers. During the interview Iannone also hints at “other options like cryptocurrency.”
“We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but cryptocurrency is something we are keeping an eye on,” eBay said in a statement to Reuters.
Other ecommerce sites such as Shopify and Newegg have already embraced crypto as a form of payment.
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